Practice Tip: Try a “culture campaign” for recruiting new staff
If you’re having trouble with hiring new staff members, try using a “culture campaign,” one of several suggestions offered by Trudi Charest in her article “25 creative recruiting ideas.” A culture campaign is meant to “showcase the vibrant culture of your office through social media,” Ms. Charest writes. “Post staff parties and events, staff during conferences and learning opportunities, staff benefits and perks, and any images showing your office having fun!” Find the other 24 suggestions by clicking here. 

See the “Research Notes” below for additional news from Hoya Vision Care, Ocular Therapeutix, and RevitalVision.

Bausch + Lomb recycling programs reach new milestone
Bausch + Lomb announced its One by One and Biotrue Eye Care recycling programs have collected 84,343,540 units, or 510,116 pounds, of used contact lenses, eye care and lens care materials in the United States, which is greater than the weight of the Statue of Liberty. In the United States, an estimated six to ten metric tons of contact lens packaging waste ends up in wastewater each year. Eye health packaging materials collected through the Bausch + Lomb recycling programs are used to create various post-consumer products, such as picnic tables and benches. For more information, click here.

Contact Lens Institute & IACLE collaborate to assist contact lens educators
The Contact Lens Institute (CLI) and the International Association of Contact Lens Educators (IACLE) announced a collaboration to provide university-level instructors with direct access to CLI-developed research publications and practice tools. Nearly 950 IACLE members, from more than 600 academic institutions and 81 countries, will be able to view and download CLI training and professional development materials from IACLETOP, the organization’s digital resource and teaching platform. These include multilingual assets for “The EASY Way,” CLI’s program to promote healthy contact lens wear-and-care, and in-depth consumer and practice management reports from CLI’s “See Tomorrow” initiative.

CooperVision hosts Educators’ Meeting in Costa Rica
CooperVision’s Educators’ Meeting brought together contact lens educators from 26 different schools and colleges of optometry across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, gathered at its San Jose, Costa Rica, manufacturing facility, to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the next generation of eye care professionals, and how curricula are evolving to keep and set the pace. Attendees had the chance to learn about CooperVision’s latest developments in soft, specialty, and myopia management contact lenses, as well as its support and programs for academic institutions.

CORE’s new issue of Contact Lens Update now available 
The Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE) has released its latest issue of Contact Lens Update, number 77, which is dedicated to several recent introductions and promising pipeline developments. The publication is available at no charge by visiting ContactLensUpdate.com. 

I-Screen project will use AI to assist in identification of AMD
I-Screen is a European Union research project that will use an artificial intelligence (AI)-based program to identify and monitor age-related macular degeneration (AMD) at its early stages. The program brings together 12 partnering institutions from across Europe and is led by Dr. Ruth Hogg from the Centre for Public Health at the Queen’s University Belfast. For more information, click here.

Ocular Therapeutix makes leadership changes 
Ocular Therapeutix’s executive chairman, Pravin U. Dugel, MD, is assuming the roles of president and CEO, with Antony Mattessich stepping down from this post. Dr. Dugel will continue to serve as a director and executive chairman of ocular. In related news, Ocular Therapeutix has added to its clinical development organization with the appointment of Nadia K. Waheed, MD, MPH, to chief medical officer; Peter K. Kaiser, MD, to chief development officer; Andrea Gibson, PhD, to vice president, medical collaborations; and Namrata Saroj, OD, as development strategy consultant. Jeffrey S. Heier, MD, will continue in his role as chief scientific officer.

Valley Contax and Contamac name travel grant winner
Valley Contax and Contamac US have revealed the recipient of the travel grant to attend the AAO’s Optometry’s Meeting in Nashville. Out of a pool of candidates, Tania Styma, a student from the Class of 2025 at Michigan College of Optometry, emerged as the winner. In her essay, Tania wrote, "I am passionate about optometry because it is a health profession with heart."

The Vision Council brings together optical industry in California
The Vision Council hosted the 2024 Lab Leadership Forum on April 11 and 12 in California with nearly 100 optical industry executives in attendance. The Vision Council offered education, networking, and recognition, with the specific aim of fostering professional growth and collaboration among industry peers. The event featured the posthumous honoring of Steve Sutherlin with the 2024 Goodfellow Award.

VSP Vision releases 2023 social responsibility Impact Report
VSP Vision has shared its social responsibility Impact Report for 2023, which highlights the company’s progress toward its corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments. The second annual report provides details on how VSP Vision continues to collaborate with its network of optometrists, community partners and employees to help accelerate health equity, empower diversity, equity, and inclusion, and advance sustainability. In 2023, VSP Vision reported investing nearly $13.5 million in direct and in-kind funding to positively impact communities and increase equitable access to vision care. For more information, including statistics on frames made from sustainable materials, click here.

Research Notes

• Hoya Vision Care released results of the Early Experience Program (EEP) research focusing on the experience of patients after wearing MiYOSMART sun solution Chameleon lenses. The photochromic lenses, released in April 2023, are designed to offer an “all in-one” solution to myopia management and protected outdoor activity by rapidly adapting to the level of sunlight, fading back to clear indoors. Results of the EEP showed that the MiYOSMART Chameleon spectacle lenses allowed rapid adaptation, with almost 80% (n=65) of patients adapting within one day to their new lenses. For more information, click here.
• Ocular Therapeutix announced positive topline results from the Phase 1 HELIOS study evaluating AXPAXLI versus a sham control in patients with moderately severe to severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (‘NPDR’, NCT05695417) without diabetic macular edema. For more information, click here.
• RevitalVision shared two clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of the company’s cortical stimulation technology in improving vision in two eye diseases: congenital nystagmus and keratoconus. The first trial (abstract viewable here) found that patients with congenital nystagmus had significant improvement in near and distance visual acuity after receiving visual stimulation for four months. The second trial (abstract viewable here), which won best poster at this year’s ASCRS conference, found that keratoconus patients who received the treatment gained 2.5 lines in distance and near best corrected visual acuity (BCVA).